Jackson Lee has held her congressional seat for almost 30 years with overwhelming support from Black and Hispanic voters, who together comprise a lopsided majority in her district. She would similarly need a sizable turnout from voters of color throughout the city to win the mayoral race.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s down to two candidates in the race to lead the nation’s fourth-largest city. U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and state Sen. John Whitmire will face off in Saturday’s
Jackson Lee has held her congressional seat for almost 30 years with overwhelming support from Black and Hispanic voters, who together comprise a lopsided majority in her district. She would similarly need a sizable turnout from voters of color throughout the city to win the mayoral race.
Some of Houston’s largest neighborhoods, such as Alief, Sharpstown, Central Southwest, South Belt/Ellington, Northside/Northline and Golfcrest/Bellfort/Reveille, have majority or near-majority Hispanic populations. Majority-Black neighborhoods include Fort Bend, Acres Homes, South Park and Sunnyside.
High turnout in these areas would be good news for the congresswoman, but a sampling of data from the nine days of early voting suggests that has yet to materialize. For example, Alief, with its near-majority Hispanic population, has almost double the population of the predominantly white Kingwood neighborhood, yet the almost 8,400 votes cast early in-person in the Kingwood voting center more than doubles the 3,000 votes cast early in-person in the two Alief voting centers.
Whitmire, who is white, represents a state Senate district where Hispanics comprise 37% of the voting age population, whites comprise 32%, African Americans 21% and Asians 9%.
The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidate to close the gap. If the race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as a candidate concession or a declaration of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.
Texas has automatic recounts only in the case of a tie vote. The state, however, has liberal laws on candidate-requested recounts. A losing candidate can request and pay for a recount if the margin between the top candidates is less than 10% of the leader’s vote total.
The AP may declare a winner in a race that is eligible for a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.
About 21% of Houston’s 1.2 million registered voters cast ballots in the Nov. 7 election. Turnout for the 2019 mayoral runoff was at 19% of registered voters. Voters in Texas do not register by party.
More than half of Houston voters in the November election cast their ballots before Election Day. Of the nearly 253,000 votes cast, 50% were cast early in-person, while an additional 5% were cast by mail. About 44% of votes were cast in-person on Election Day.
For the runoff election, almost 135,000 voters in Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties had cast ballots by the end of the early voting period on Tuesday. About 91% of this advance vote was cast early in-person, and about 9% was cast by mail.
In the Nov. 7 mayoral general election, the AP first reported results at 8:17 p.m. ET, or 17 minutes after polls closed. By noon ET the next day, about 99.6% of the total vote had been counted.
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